New poll of public school students: Teach us creation!
By Michael Matthews, AiG-US

Yet another poll indicates that Americans believe creation should be included in US public school classrooms.

Channel One, a secular broadcast company that airs a daily program for public schools, asked students, ‘Which theory should be taught in your classroom?’ The choices were creation, evolution, or both. A majority of students (52 percent) said ‘both.’ Another 31 percent said ‘creation,’ and only 17 percent said ‘evolution.’¹

Does modern evolutionary belief agree with real science?

Refuting Evolution by Dr. Jonathan Sarfati Refuting Evolution is a general critique of the most up-to-date arguments for evolution to challenge educators, students, and parents. Thus it provides a good summary of the arguments against evolution and for creation. It should stimulate much discussion and help students and teachers think more critically about origins. MORE INFO / PURCHASE ONLINE

Creation CD-ROM Over 350 pages of powerful creation information, including responses to each of the seven PBS-TV Evolution programs. Also includes 40 minutes of video content, the complete book Refuting Evolution, and 13 audio interviews and messages by Creation scientists & speakers. MORE INFO / PURCHASE ONLINE

The poll was posted on ChannelOne.com as part of a January 8 story about Rodney LeVake, a Christian teacher who was forced out of his biology classroom in Minnesota simply because he taught evidence against evolution.  (See our Web article  Supreme Court: Don’t teach evolution difficulties!)

Of course, this is only a Web survey designed for public-school students, so it lacks statistical validity as a representation of the entire country.  But the numbers are in keeping with professional polls.  A nationwide poll reported in March 2000, for example, found that 79% of Americans believe that creation should be taught in some form in public schools. The liberal group People For the American Way commissioned the poll.²  (See America says: Teach creation in public schools!)

A series of Gallup polls from 1982 to 2001 reveal similar findings (although the question was framed differently).  In these surveys, almost one half of Americans said God created human beings within the past 10,000 years or so, which is essentially the Biblical model.  Another 35-40 percent believe that humans evolved over millions of years from lesser creatures, but God guided the process.  Only around 11 percent of Americans held to a strictly evolutionary view of human origins, with God playing no part in the process.³

Unlike the majority of science teachers and scientists, a large number of Americans can see the serious scientific problems with evolutionary theory and believe that a competing view should be taught to young people.⁴

So why is it that the minority determines what the majority is being taught? Ken Ham, president of AiG-US, explains:

• ‘Number one: I think the humanist elite are in control of the educational system and are foisting their views on the general public.’

• ‘Number two: the public has been falsely indoctrinated to believe that they can’t disagree with the views of this elite, and they are intimidated to believe that they can’t discuss alternative viewpoints.’  (The removal of LeVake from his biology classroom is a case in point.)

• ‘Number three, I think many of the people who attend church haven’t been taught the importance of this issue and so they don’t realize how foundational it is and how much it affects the whole of society.’

• ‘Number four, we’ve had generations come through an education system where they’ve been taught that evolution is “science” and creation is “religion.”  They completely misunderstand the nature of the battle.’

It’s more important than ever that Christians get out the truth about the creation/evolution debate, exposing the elitism of the educational establishment, which scorns the majority and wants to squelch alternative viewpoints.

---

1. Question of the day, ChannelOne.com, 9 January 2002. [RETURN TO TEXT]

2. People for the American Way Foundation, Evolution and creationism in public education: an in-depth reading of public opinion, www.pfaw.org, March 2000.   The poll results are difficult to interpret because of the convoluted language—many of the respondents believe that creation can/should be taught, but not as science.  See page 15 of the report for a detailed breakdown of the results. [RETURN TO TEXT]

3. Substantial Numbers of Americans Continue to Doubt Evolution as Explanation for Origin of Humans, www.gallup.com, 5 March 2001. [RETURN TO TEXT]

4. NOTE:  AiG is not in favor of legislation/litigation that would force instructors to teach creation in public schools—that could be counterproductive (i.e. an evolutionist science instructor would most likely teach creation—or intelligent design—poorly or mockingly).  Teachers should have the academic freedom, however, to at least teach the problems with evolution. [RETURN TO TEXT]

Help keep these daily articles coming. Find out how to support AiG.